Transmigration: Loved by the Phoenix [bxb]

Chapter 3-Going Twice

Fear was an interesting feeling.

It creeped up on you even though you completely expected it. It was something nearly tangible; something that could suffocate all of the hope right from your soul and leave only despair.

Fear was an interesting contrast to sleepiness, the quiet killer that simply left you feeling blank.

And maybe that's why while all of the slaves had a dull, empty look in their eyes, as if they were going to hell and could do nothing to stop it, Kai was the only one who could still daydream about better days. While the others shivered in fear of the nightmares that haunted them every time they closed their eyes, Kai's dreams were quiet and dreamless.

Or maybe it was because he just couldn't bring himself to stay awake for longer than five minutes. Actually, that was probably the reason why.

Sometime after he was sold off, whatever strengthening potion they gave him wore off, and he was back to cultivating his inner panda; sleep, eat, sleep and repeat.

There was seriously nothing he could do at this point. He couldn't ask the slaves what was going on, not yet strong enough to initiate a conversation. And his brain was too sleepy to think of any complex escape algorithms.

It was only when he woke up coughing on a suspicious yet familiar pink liquid did he realize that sleep-time was over. It was a happy yet frightening thought.

He looked around to see himself in a room with a multitude of other captives. His eyesight landed on a neighboring captive. Kai rubbed his eyes. It was still there. He closed his eyes. He opened them. Close. Open. Close.

Someone slapped him.

"Stay awake, stupid slave," his captor huffed.

Kai kept his eyes open, watching as the man walked away. Once he was out of eyesight, Kai stared at his neighbor and finally accepted that he had either gone delusional or was still asleep.

The guy beside him almost looked like a normal human with faintly delicate features. Keyword: almost.

Because on the guy's back was a pair of huge butterfly wings.

Kai stared slack-jawed at the human-fairy hybrid. Almost dreamily, he reached over and touched the butterfly wing.

The slave flinched backward, staring warily at Kai. The man in question dazedly looked at his hand. The butterfly wing was real. He could feel its flowery texture, the slight tremble beneath his fingertips.

Winged people existed.

He looked up, and his reality broke once again as he saw someone with cat ears laying on the ground. Then there was someone with horns on their head and a lion's tail. Someone else's eyes glowed in the dim lighting.

Kai automatically checked himself over, worried that he too had gained some new appendages. Although he had already looked his body over before, he couldn't help but to double check.

The first thing he noticed was his scantily clad outfit that covered less than a bath towel.

His mood darkened.

Suddenly, he felt as though where he was and where he was going wasn't a nice place.

Placing that dark thought aside in a darker corner of his mind, he moved onto inspecting his body. It hadn't of changed since the last time he checked. He was still unnaturally pale, and the tattoo of a blooming flower remained. The petals of the flower stretched across his chest, right over his heart. It was a surprisingly vibrant shade of blue, contrasting with his pale skin.